I woke to childish laughter down the hall, the bed empty beside me. I pulled my clothes on and headed towards the nursery, towards the laughter. Pritkin was sitting cross-legged on the floor, with Jeannie next to him. The small white training bowl was sitting on the window seat in front of them.
"I don't want you to just turn the bowl purple," he told her. "I want to see the bowl turn every color, one after the other, until it is purple at the last. Try it again," he urged gently.
"Yes, Mage Pitkin," she piped.
I recognized the exercise. It was designed to appeal to children, to make magic training fun. The bowl was made of a material that reacted to magic power, changing color in relation to the strength of a spell. The color started as red and changed to orange, yellow, green, and blue thru the spectrum to purple. A student received instant visual feedback from their effort. The goal of the exercise was to learn to control the output of one's magic, so that the bowl would register each color in the proper sequence. The intensity of the color was an indication of inherent magic strength. I had not yet made the bowl change color past pink. Jeannie had turned the bowl a deep, vibrant purple on her first try. She would be a powerful magic user. War Mages could vaporize the bowl.
"Keep practicing. You can show me later what you can do," he told her.
"Good afternoon Cassie," he greeted me. The formality of training was back. "Are you ready to proceed with your exercises?"
I sighed in resignation and nodded. He led me downstairs into the kitchen and pointed to a chair. I sat while he rummaged in his duffel and brought out my own training bowl, setting it on the table near my hands.
He crossed his arms, assessing me with a thoughtful crease on his brow.
"Let's try something different. I want you to close your eyes and meditate, steady your breathing." He looked at me expectantly. I closed my eyes.
"I want you to empty your mind of the thoughts that trouble you. You are in a safe place, nothing is pressing, and all concerns will wait until tomorrow." His voice was deep and mellow, almost hypnotic.
I calmed and gradually my breathing slowed. Pritkin then repeated the same instructions we had been working with for almost a week.
"Find your power core. It is always there with you. When you are ready, pull a small thread from your core, and wind it into a ball like yarn. You will feel pressure, but it won't hurt you. Keep pulling and winding. When you absolutely can't hold the pressure any longer, think of the bowl and direct a stream of your power towards it. Start thin and slow, gradually expand the stream and the speed with which you let it go."
He was silent for a few moments. I felt a steady tingle in my fingers.
"Push harder and faster," he coached.
I pushed. My fingers were buzzing. I opened my eyes a slit and peeked at the bowl. I watched it change from grass green to royal blue!
"Now push the power out of you as hard and as fast as you can."
I closed my eyes and pushed harder with the whole ball of power. I peeked again. The bowl was purple. Not the deep purple Jeannie had produced, but purple none the less. I could do this. I grinned and kept pushing until the ball of power was gone. The bowl stayed purple, and then started to fade back to white. I smiled triumphantly at Pritkin. He reached over and touched my arm, giving me a short nod.
"Finally," he said flatly. "I knew you had it in you".
Actually, he really did know. He had accessed my magic when he was in my body during the body swap, combining it with an esoteric spell no one had a counter to. He had fought well with it.
"You must practice regularly. Magic is like a muscle…it gets stronger with regular use. Your power will regenerate with food and sleep. There is time for you to practice some more before dinner. It is a mark of achievement to be able to select and control the color with steadiness. I'm going to check on my other student," he announced crisply.
I practiced for the remainder of the afternoon. Dinner was a quiet event. Jeannie had brought her bowl with her to the table and kept shifting it to different colors all during the meal.
"Should she be playing with that thing while she's eating?" I asked as I bit into my tofu dog.
"This is how magical children learn…by immersing themselves with the exercises. Mealtime can be a regular reminder to practice, especially when the bowls are used as dinnerware. That is why the item is a bowl. I expect she will use it for her morning porridge."
The colorful crockery changed to a constant pink.
"Is she getting tired? Pink is the least powerful color," worried Pritkin. "The child must eat regularly and get plenty of sleep. The magic uses a lot of energy."
I watched her. She was bright-eyed and didn't look at all like she did right before I put her down for a nap earlier in the day.
"No," I smiled. "I think she has decided she likes pink."
While Pritkin washed the dinner dishes, Jeannie and I practiced. Pritkin barked out colors and expected us to produce that color in our bowls.
"I need both of you to produce green at will. That is the minimum power for effective spells. Try it with your eyes closed." He gave us a few moments. "More power, Cassie…that's it. Both of you keep pushing at this level…feel it…learn it…know it."
Stop, green, stop, green. Over and over. I was getting pooped. Pritkin was right…this did use a lot of energy.
"Right, then. That's it. No more until tomorrow, then we'll try some spells." He collected our bowls and put them into the kitchen cabinet. I glanced at the window.
"It's dark out already?" I inspected Jeannie. She had drooping eyes again.
"Bath and bedtime for one for us," I announced as I took her by the hand. I drew her bath and supervised washing ears and hair and brushing teeth. I noticed a cartoon character-shaped bottle of bubble bath by the tub and child sized toothbrushes by the sink. There were clothes in the nursery dresser, not gender specific but still her size. I pulled out a small nightshirt for her. How did Pritkin know?
"All tucked in?" Pritkin came in as I was closing the curtains. He walked over to her bed and touched his palm to her forehead, whispering something. Jeannie nodded to him and hugged her stuffed bear.
"What was that?" I asked as we left her room, closing the door behind us.
"Just an old Welsh blessing. Are you turning in now as well?
"Not yet. I had a nap…sort of," I reminded him with a ghost of a smile.
"I have some work to do. I'll be up for awhile. Join me if you like," he invited.
I followed him to the kitchen and watched while he set coffee to brew and pulled out a variety of bottles and jars from the cupboards.
"I'm replenishing my potions. Now that I'm back in my own home I have the materials I need. In Vegas, I used to have access to the Corps' armory for potion ingredients. I lost that access when I broke from the Circle over you." With a speculative eye, he checked the supplies laid out on the counter. "It may start to smell bad in here soon. Open the door, would you?"
I opened the kitchen door, breathing deeply of the green scents from the back garden and listening to the sounds of evening in the country. There was a flash of light from inside the brick shed.
"Visitor," I told him.
Pritkin grabbed a gun out of the breadbox and pulled me away from the door, his lips a thin grim line. Marsden walked up the path, his white hair glowing like a small luminescent cloud around his head.
"John. Cassie. Lovely evening," He greeted us cheerfully.
"Jonas. It's a little late for a visit to the country, isn't it?" Pritkin responded guardedly.
"The vampires wanted to know where Cassie is. I told them she was on a training run and would return tomorrow. You know how possessive they are." Marsden stepped into the kitchen.
"You changed the rug," he noticed.
"Your dog peed on the other one," Pritkin snorted with disgust.
"It was old anyway, wasn't it? I gave you a reason to chuck it into the bin," Marsden commented while he pulled several folders out of his carry case. "This is the information we have on the girl, and this is your separation paperwork should you decide to continue that route." He shook his head. "After all the trouble I went to, getting you reinstated. You're throwing it all away, you know."
"What? Why?" I jumped in surprise, feeling slightly panicked.
"Didn't tell her yet, did you?" Marsden clucked.